Author interview with paranormal nonfiction writer Sylvia Shults

Today we’re featuring a local (to me) author who writes paranormal nonfiction! Fans of Ghost Hunters might recognize her from the episode, “Prescription for Fear,” which explores the Peoria State Hospital. Sylvia’s interview includes some great stories about about some of our fellow authors in the area that I know you’ll enjoy. If paranormal nonfiction is your jam, then be sure to have a pen ready to add a ton of great books to your TBR list while you read this interview!

Q: When did you first catch the writing bug? What drove you to persist?
A: I’ve always loved story. I can’t remember a time before reading — my father tells me that I taught myself how to read when I was two years old, and I’ve never stopped. I grew up in a house full of books: fairy tales, folk tales, the Narnia books, anything involving ghosts or horses or dinosaurs … I couldn’t get enough. Even now, I read voraciously and omnivorously.

When I was in high school, I began to think about maybe writing down some of the stories that were swirling around in my gray matter. I got myself a few notebooks and started scribbling. I was drawn to spiral-bound notebooks, college ruled, with Garfield on them. The cover of one of the notebooks had the orange cat holding onto his teddy bear with one paw, and a bunch of balloons in the other, and as he was lifted aloft he was saying to the bear, “Stick with me, kid, and we’ll go places.” I think of that long-gone notebook whenever things get tough.

Q: Where did your love of storytelling come from?
A: My father was the best storyteller I know. He had a huge repertoire of tales that he would tell whenever we kids asked for a story. He also read to us in the evenings, which was just the best thing a parent can do for their child. He put such verve into his reading that there are still parts of To Kill A Mockingbird that I can’t read today without hearing my dad’s voice in my head. His mother, my grandmother, had an exceptional vocabulary, and it’s from her that I got my love of big words. She’s the one who taught me all the really cool words I know, like obstreperous, obnoxious, perspicacious … when I was quite young, maybe five years old, I asked her if I could feed the dog a piece of my chicken. She said no. “If you give Bridget a chicken bone, it will perforate her gut.” I was five years old, and even I could figure out what she meant by that.

Q: What was the first book that made you cry?
A: Oh, how I love it when a book makes me cry! Gosh! I’m reading the first draft of a friend’s book right now, and just this morning I came across a scene that had me in tears. I’ll never forget the first book that did that to me.

When I was in grade school, I read Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor, and it rocked my world. Years later, very soon after I started at the library where I currently work, I discovered that there was a prequel to that book, called The Land. That story was equally as powerful, and I devoured it. There’s a part in it where the fate of the hero’s dreams is very much in question. Even though I KNEW everything was going to turn out alright — after all, I’d read the first book years before — I was still distraught enough at the suspense to weep for the hero.

And it was glorious.

Q: Do you have your own circle of writer friends? If so, what other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
A: Man, I don’t know what I’d do without my writer friends! There are so many, and I don’t want to leave anyone out!

There’s a group of writers that sort of form a loose Venn diagram; I’ll give them all a shout-out here. Some of them are friends with each other, and some of us write the same stuff, and others write in different genres, but they are all dear friends. David Youngquist, Tracie McBride, and I formed the core of a small publishing company once upon a time, and we’ve helped each other through good times and not-so-good times. I met David at much the same time as Donna Latham and Ophelia Julien. The three of us were authors in the same publisher’s stable, and we hit it off.

It was through David that I met Donnie Light, and it was through Ophelia that I met Terri Reid. Matt Jones has been a friend of mine for ages, and Joe Chianakas is another local author who’s a good friend. I met Andrea Jones at a library conference many years ago, and we’ve been thick as thieves ever since. All of these folks — well, we help each other out. We support each other, we ask each other for advice on projects, and we generally act as each other’s cheerleaders.

Most of those folks, I met back when I was writing horror fiction. When I made the switch to paranormal nonfiction — true ghost stories — I met another handful of wonderful authors in THAT field as well. I’m delighted to say that all of them have become friends as well as colleagues. Troy Taylor has been one of my paranormal heroes for many years. I am proud to call him my publisher as well as my friend. Ursula Bielski, Adam Selzer, and Dale Kaczmarek are Chicago ghost folks, and I’m delighted to hang out with them whenever I’m up that way. (Plus, Adam is a huge Weird Al fan, which makes him tops in my book.)

Dale and I went to England, where he introduced me to Paul Adams, and Paul introduced the pair of us to Eddie Brazil. Both Paul and Eddie are exceptional writers of true ghost stories. Richard Estep is an inspiration to me for both his paranormal nonfiction work and his true crime writing. And when I went down to Alabama on a research trip, Debra Glass took me under her wing for the night, and we pretty much instantly became besties.

This is getting pretty long, but I must mention two other very dear friends and fellow writers. I met horror author Jay Bonansinga over two decades ago, and he has been kind enough to be my mentor as well as a good friend. Learning the craft from a bestselling author is an incomparable gift, and he has always, always had my back as I’ve learned and grown as a writer. I took a four-part class from him ages ago. (To give you an idea, it was back when gas was cheap enough that I was able to drive three hours to Chicago for this class. Four Saturdays in a row.)

After I utterly botched one of his assignments, I spent the first half-hour of the drive home sobbing inconsolably, and the next week, I told him that. He said, “Oh Sylvia, why? What made you cry?” I said, “Well, after fumbling the beginning of the novel, I got to thinking, what if I can’t do this writing thing after all? What if I’m just no good at it?” Jay gazed at me, and very gently and kindly said, “Look. When you see a racehorse trotting wild around a field, and it hasn’t been trained to run on a racetrack, do you write it off as not being able to do the job? No. You train it. You are a Thoroughbred. You can do this. You just need training, that’s all.”

The last writer and colleague I need to mention is Tom Langhorne, my writing partner on my current WIP. He’s been a working journalist for over three decades, and I am beyond grateful to have him at my side for the massive project we’re working on together. Again, we lift each other up, and we have each other’s backs. I’ve never co-written a book, but I’m delighted that Tom’s the one helping me with this one.

Q: Do you prefer to write stand-alone novels, or series?
A: (Laughs) I never thought, when I started out, that I would be writing a series, but here we are!

So, several years ago, one of my publishers approached me with a proposal. He wanted me to write a true crime book. I turned him down; at that time, and for many years, it had been the style for a writer to concentrate on one case for an entire book (and if it was an unsolved crime, to put forth their own theory about the case). I just didn’t feel I had the chops to sustain a whole book with one case.

Fast-forward several years. Times change, publishing tastes change. As a librarian, I noticed that the true-crime genre was undergoing an evolution. Authors began to collect many stories into one book, all centered around a theme. I had a brainwave. I contacted the publisher and pitched my idea: a collection of true crime stories that have resulted in hauntings. He jumped on it, and I started researching and making a list of stories to include in the book. I quickly realized that I was soon sitting on enough material for half a dozen books. And that’s how the Grave Deeds and Dead Plots series — and later, the GDDP podcast — was born.

Q: What is your favorite genre to read? Do you write in that genre? Has that always been your favorite genre, or has your taste evolved as you have grown as a writer?
A: As a matter of fact, to answer the last part first, yes.
I started out writing fiction — both horror and romance (I know, fine line between the two). I began with horror, but as I grew as a writer, I veered over into romance. I was invited to submit material to a romance publisher, and to that end, I asked a co-worker of mine to suggest good material to read to get a feel for the genre. Happily, she pointed me towards humorous romance. And of course horror has always been my first love.

I absolutely adore suspense, particularly domestic suspense, particularly that set in England. I do still read fiction, but most of my reading now is in nonfiction. As that’s what I write now, it’s a real pleasure for me to see how other writers approach nonfiction.

Q: What — if anything — do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?
A: Well. I know this question is aimed at the fiction writers you interview on your blog. But it does hold true for nonfiction as well.

I firmly believe, as a paranormal investigator and as a writer, that you can’t understand the ghost stories of a place without knowing the history of a place. That’s why we have the stories. Real people lived there, and died there. I owe it to them to tell their stories with accuracy and compassion.

That goes double for true crime, and triple for modern true crime. I need to remind my readers that these folks aren’t just Internet headlines. They are real people. People that perhaps did bad things, or had bad things done to them. They deserve to have their stories told with truth, empathy, and integrity.

Q: What kind of music or sounds do you like to listen to as you write, or do you prefer silence?
A: I was raised on classical music, and it’s still my favorite musical genre. When I’m writing, I absolutely cannot listen to anything with lyrics. It messes with my flow something fierce. It’s gotta be classical. Preferably Baroque.

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: I’m a desk assistant — sorry, Circulation Specialist — at a public library. I’m surrounded by books and they pay me to be there. Bliss.

Q: What have you written that you found to be the most fun to write?
A: Hmm. It’s really a tie between two of my books. Spirits of Christmas: The Darker Side of the Holidays was just ridiculous amounts of fun to research and write. And then — and then! — I researched and wrote Gone On Vacation: Haunted Zoos, Museums, and Amusement Parks. I dedicated that one to my childhood self, who would have been utterly thrilled to discover that book on the shelf.

Q: What was the hardest part of writing your most recent book?
A: Well, I’ll tell you about, not my most recent book, but Spirits of Christmas. I ran into something that gave me just loads of trouble. Spirits of Christmas is divided into several sections: monsters of Christmas, the history of the holiday and how the Victorians celebrated, ghost stories of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, ghost stories of December … One of the sections is about tragedies that happened in December. I knew that was going to be a hard section to write, so naturally I saved it ’til last. I set a weekend aside to get a good running start on it. I worked all day on Saturday. By the time I was done for the day, I had a blinding headache, and I had vicious nightmares all night. The next morning, I still wanted to power through the work. So I went to my ghost hunting kit and got out one of my protective crystals, my black tourmaline. I had it on the desk as I took notes and outlined, and I held it in my hand as I wrote. No headache, no nightmares, and the section got written just fine.

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing your most recent book?
A: Heh. My most recent book was the second volume in the Grave Deeds and Dead Plots series. I get to combine two of my passions, true crime and the paranormal. And the GDDP series does contain a healthy dose of snark. It’s just awfully fun to write. (And a couple of the stories in Volume 2 were tales that I heard for the first time in England. So it was a real treat for me to include those.)

Q: What projects are you working on at present?
A: Tom Langhorne and I are co-writing a book about Vicky White and Casey White, and the jailbreak of April 2022. For those who are unfamiliar, Vicky White was the assistant director of Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama. Casey White was serving 75 years in Donaldson Prison in Bessemer, AL. He was transferred to Lauderdale County, he and Vicky met … and Vicky fell in love. She arranged to break him out of jail, and they went on the run for eleven days. They were captured in Evansville, Indiana, not 250 miles from Florence.

I followed this story in April and May 2022, as riveted as the rest of the nation. I sort of became obsessed, and I knew I had to write about it. I contacted several reporters in Evansville to get more information, and Tom was the only one who wrote me back. After getting to know each other, we decided to write the book together. (And wow, am I happy with that decision! This is SUCH a complex project; it’s far too big for just one writer.)

Q: What do your plans for future projects include?
A: Well, Tom likes to joke with me that I’m just going to do true crime from here on out, but I know I’ll never give up my beloved ghost stories. I have material for at least four more volumes of Grave Deeds and Dead Plots; the next volume (#3) in the series will be all about gangsters, which will be an absolute blast to write. But the next book after my current WIP will be a sequel to the haunted zoos etc. book. It’ll be called Gone On Vacation: Endless Summer, and I simply can’t wait to dive into it!

More about the author

After battling an intense, lifelong fear of the dark, Sylvia Shults decided to become a ghost hunter. (What WAS she thinking?) As a paranormal investigator, she has made many media appearances, including a tiny part in the Ghost Hunters episode “Prescription for Fear,” about the Peoria State Hospital.

She has spent the last twenty-five years working at a public library, slowly smuggling out enough words in her pockets week after week to build a book of her own. She lives a short, ten-minute motorcycle ride away from the haunted asylum that features in so many of her books. She considers it the highest privilege to share the incredible, compassionate history of the Peoria State Hospital.

She is the writer, narrator, director, and producer of the true ghost story podcast Lights Out With Sylvia Shults, available on any podcast platform, and on YouTube.

Connect with the author

Sylvia loves hearing from her readers, especially when they have spooky stories of their own to share with her. Check out her website and the Facebook pages for her books to connect:

• Author website
• Fractured Spirits Facebook page
• Ghosts of the Illinois River Facebook page
• Buy Sylvia Shults books on Amazon today!

Now available in print and on Kindle!